What natural substitutes for butter and sugar taste best? for Questionland Seattle

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What natural substitutes for butter and sugar taste best?

I've just been diagnosed with PCOS and insulin-resistance, and my doctor has ordered me to cut down on my fat and sugar intake.

I bake a lot, and while I can still go the full butter/sugar route occasionally, I can't do it all that often. What are the best ingredients I can swap in to make my baking somewhat healthier? (I generally try and avoid splenda, etc, but if that's all there is, I can deal)

duckgirlie asked in Baking Week about 1 year ago | Report

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I second Earth Balance. While it isn't butter (nothing is, alas) it does have a nice consistency and tastes pretty good.

As for sugar, you may have to alter what you use depending on the recipe. For instance, using maple syrup might taste good in wintry quick bread, but not so great in a delicate white cake. Here's a nice table of some alternatives: http://www.vegetarianorganiclife.com/sugartable.htm

Jessie Oleson answered in Baking Week about 1 year ago | Report

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When I make vegan product, I always use Earth Balance in place of butter. Make sure not to bake with the whipped spread version. It tastes pretty darn good and bakes well.

Sugar is a tricky one.... maybe someone else has good ideas there? It's such a big part of the structure of the baked good that it's tricky to replace without major texture changes. I know there are quite a few books & blogs about baking with agave & honey; I'd be inclined to look for their recipes that were developed without sugar instead of trying a direct replacement.

lookcupcake answered in Baking Week about 1 year ago | Report

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Have you tried Agave Nectar? Its liquid like honey and does not spike the glycemic index. However, when used in baking you will be adding a liquid so it might require adjustments in other areas like oil in a zucchini bread. I also have used Zylitol which is a natural sweetener made from the cellulose found in fruits and vegetables. It comes in a powder form and will not spike glycemic index either. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol

And as for fats, grapeseed and avocado oil are both good sources of omega and have a mild taste. I avoid Canola oil as it is a GMO food. I have not used any of the vegetable shortenings so its unfair for me to comment on them.

There are a great many sites out there for Diabetic baking and cooking, do some hunting around on the internet and you will soon discover you are in good company! Happy baking!

Chef Robin answered in Baking Week about 1 year ago | Report

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pickled ginger

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I have extensive experience with avoiding sugar. I had to cut it out completely for a while, then was able to consume it in small amounts. Also, I love cooking and enjoy baking. So...this may not be a welcome answer, but it's based in experience.

Substitutes: Often expensive and nutritionally suspicious, and most of them don't work in baking. Sugar is important in certain baked goods because it browns the tops of cookies, turns into caramel, reduces to syrup, etc; most other sweeteners lack these crucial chemical properties. Splenda is reportedly best for baking, but I wouldn't want to make it a regular part of my diet. I've heard of folks who use half sugar and half Splenda, and if that appeals to you, go for it. Some strict sugar-avoiders recommend xylitol, but it's also kind of weird and not ideal for baking. (I've tried it and it's not bad, but it imparts a cooling sensation and like the other -ol sweeteners it can have a laxative effect, which kind of undermines the joy of baked goods.) Stevia is useless for baking. If your doctor says it's okay there are plenty of natural sugars like date, palm, honey, maple, etc, but I suspect that for your purposes they're still sugar, and they cost more than cane/beet, which is rough when you need a bunch for cookies.

So honestly? If you're a frequent baker, I'd suggest using real sugar, but way way less than the recipe calls for. Cut the sugar down by half or even two-thirds, and don't expect other people to love what you bake (though sometimes they surprisingly do, as with the gluten-free, half-sugar cookies I made tonight). This may change the texture of some items, because you're removing bulk from the recipe and losing some of what sugar does chemically, but it's not always a problem (my cookies are a bit cakier than the photos in the recipe show, but they're definitely cookies). You'll just have to experiment.

By the way, if you're going to go this route, you may find that your reduced-sugar recipes just aren't sweet enough! If this is true, you have to adjust your taste too. Stop eating sugar entirely (no dried fruit, no juice, nothing sweet) for like a month. When I did it, the first few weeks were torture--I was craving sweets nonstop, and suddenly the hippie-alternative notion that we're addicted to sugar made sense to me. I mean, if you're young and healthy and don't want anyone to tell you not to eat ice cream for dinner, that's totally cool; I wasn't healthy and I had no choice, and in the long run I'm grateful that I no longer want to eat entire bags of Sour Patch Kids. Anyway, the crazy cravings do vanish, and then you can experiment with lower-sugar recipes to your heart's content. And your doctor will love you.

As for fat, I can't help you there, but there's a lot out there about substituting fruit pastes and such, along with stuff about better fats in other answers here.

pickled ginger answered in Baking Week about 1 year ago | Report

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paeonia

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The other commenters suggested Earth Balance, which is delicious but still fat, so I'm not sure that answers your question.

Have you checked out http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2005/12/recipe-index.html? There are baked goods and desserts sections.

I recently tried baking cookies with (only) stevia powder (there are some stevia products created to match with sugar volume-for-volume, but not all). It was...interesting. Has a sweet aftertaste that I'd rather it didn't have, so using less might be the solution. (I also substituted some almond milk for part of the oil.)

There are definitely some standard substitutions you can look up, with varying degrees of success (egg replacer for eggs, unsweetened applesauce for butter/oil and part of the sugar). I had a really successful carrot cake recipe in which I substituted the eggs/sugar/oil with egg replacer, date syrup, applesauce, and tahini. Which brings me to my next suggestion: date sugar and date syrup. I'm no food chemist or medical professional, so I can't comment on whether this might help your medical issue, but but date sugar and syrup have some fiber in them which maybe slows down blood sugar spiking? I haven't been entirely pleased with date sugar, as it's just not as great as real sugar on account of its less-sweet-more-fiber nature, but the syrup is good (more sweet, less fiber).

(And as a little word of warning to anyone who reduces their sugar intake: from my experience, your body will get used to that and if you give it a big dose of sugar you will quickly feel like crap the rest of the day.)

paeonia answered in Baking Week about 1 year ago | Report

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Coconut oil is said to be good for people with insulin resistance and PCOS.
VIRGIN COCONUT OIL HELPS PCOS
Coconut Oil Can Help With PCOS Symptoms

There are testimonials and advice online for using coconut oil in baking. Some people use half coconut oil and half butter. Others suggest using applesauce in a 1:1 ratio with butter.

Christina L answered in Baking Week about 1 year ago | Report

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